When there is an s at the end, it usually means our ancestors came from Ireland, Scotland, or England. However, in doing work on the german-swiss shank-shenk-schenk-schenck family, I have found instances of our ancestors going by Shanks. Sometimes brothers spelled their surname differently! If you would like to join us at the SHANK family web siter of myfamily.com, please type your complete name and e-mail address into your reply so that I can send you an invitation to join us